How much antenna do you need?

Erocku · 08-29-2004

I was about to start wardriving and was looking at external antennas for my orinoco card. I see on HyperlinkTech and FAB-Corp's websites that their omni directional antennas range from 3dbi to 15dbi. I searched through the forums and found that the higher the dbi, the flatter the signal gets. So my question would be exactly how much antenna do you need to buy to get the best range when wardriving? Thanks.

wrzwaldo · 08-29-2004

You can't go wrong with one in the 5dbi range.

RaiD · 08-29-2004

I just purchased a 7dBi antenna on ebay, here's the link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...e=STRK:MEWN:IT

This antenna is a lot smaller than it looks in the pictures, but it performs as advertised. See the attached image of my "results".

I've noticed that I'm finding a lot more networks with the antenna than I was without it. For instance, along this one route, I am finding double the number of networks. Of course, your success will vary.

I felt that I wanted more gain than 5 dBi but didn't need as much as 10 dBi, so I figured 7 dBi would be a good compromise. Just my thoughts...

08-29-2004	#1 (permalink)
Erocku Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Posts: 7	How much antenna do you need? I was about to start wardriving and was looking at external antennas for my orinoco card. I see on HyperlinkTech and FAB-Corp's websites that their omni directional antennas range from 3dbi to 15dbi. I searched through the forums and found that the higher the dbi, the flatter the signal gets. So my question would be exactly how much antenna do you need to buy to get the best range when wardriving? Thanks. Last edited by Erocku : 08-29-2004 at 07:07 PM.

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08-29-2004	#2 (permalink)
wrzwaldo I amuse you? Join Date: Dec 2003 Posts: 9,147	You can't go wrong with one in the 5dbi range.